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A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

Colin Powell

It takes more courage to send men into battle than to fight the battle yourself.
COLIN POWELL

Battle Courage Fight Man Yourself
Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
COLIN POWELL

Force Multiply Optimism
We are not going to dwell on those things that divide us. We are going to rejoice in those things that keep us together to make this a better country – to reach down and back to touch every young person in need!
COLIN POWELL

Country Division Ourselves Person Rejoice Togetherness
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
COLIN POWELL

Ability Let Go Try Yourself
Preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake. This the Constitution forbids.
COLIN POWELL

Constitution Discrimination Origin Reason
Don’t bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.
COLIN POWELL

Help Myself People Problem Solve
It is good if your enemy underestimates you. The dumber they think you are the more surprised they are when you kill them.
COLIN POWELL

Enemy Kill Thinking Yourself
Respect for leaders by followers can’t be mandated; it must be earned. It has to be given to leaders by their followers.
COLIN POWELL

Earn Follow Leadership Mandatory Respect
I want to see policies that encourage every American to vote, not make it more difficult to vote.
COLIN POWELL

Difficult Encouragement Myself Policy
Good leaders must know how to reward those who succeed and know when to retrain, move, or fire ineffective staff.
COLIN POWELL

Goodness Leadership Move Success
My own experience is that you get as much information as you can and then you pay attention to your intuition, to your informed instinct.
COLIN POWELL

Attention Experience Information Intuition Pay Yourself
Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
COLIN POWELL

Hard Work People Play Serious Work
First you train the followers to accomplish the mission. Second, you resource them: Make sure that they have the tools to do the job. Third, you reward them: You give them medals or bonuses.
COLIN POWELL

Accomplishment Follow Job Medal Reward Tools Training Yourself
Always do your best. Somebody is watching you.
COLIN POWELL

Best Watch Yourself
Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
COLIN POWELL

Blood Death Expert Judgement Reality World
The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.
COLIN POWELL

Day Leadership Problem Soldier Yourself
Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
COLIN POWELL

Attitude Excellence Prevail
Always be looking for the opportunities, and always be optimistic about what you can do with that opportunity.
COLIN POWELL

Opportunity Optimistic Yourself
Failure is a part of life and you have to learn to deal with it. Failure is something that is part of life’s cycle and it’s from failure that you gain life experience.
COLIN POWELL

Deal Experience Failure Learning Life Yourself
The essence of leadership is building bonds of trust in your organization.
COLIN POWELL

Bond Essence Leadership Organization Trust Yourself
Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.
COLIN POWELL

Accomplishment Art Leadership Management Possible
Trust is the glue that holds an org together & the lubricant that moves it forward.
COLIN POWELL

Hold Move Togetherness Trust
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.
COLIN POWELL

Determination Dreams Hard Work Magic Reality Sweat
One of the greatest talents of all is the talent to recognize and to develop talent in others.
COLIN POWELL

Development Greatness Oneself Recognition Talent
Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.
COLIN POWELL

Born Errors Experience Leadership Learning
A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.
COLIN POWELL

Choice Friendship Himself Mirror Reflection
Leaders honor their core values, but they are flexible in how they execute them.
COLIN POWELL

Core Execution Leadership Value Yourself

A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

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A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.

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